Watch and pray

Tonight I was listening to a song that you’ve doubtless heard if you’ve listened to much contemporary Christian radio in the past ten years or so: "Watch and pray // no one knows the moment // no one knows the hour or the day // watch and pray // til you see Him coming // coming through the clouds in white array // to take His bride away." Now, I must admit to you that I don’t get particularly concerned about the "taking His bride away" part, but I am very much interested in seeing Him coming.

There are a lot of things that happen when Jesus shows up on the job, and I’m rather partial to most of them. (Particularly I’m fond of the reward that He brings with Him.) I’ve generally heard of this in the light of one final coming at the very end of all time, or something of that nature, but that’s too far off for me.

Think about a promise. You can take your pick on which promise—any promise God has made to you will do. God has promised me what you could call some presents; He has promised me that I would do amazing things; and He has promised me that He would do amazing things for me. Those are all great promises.

But.

Meanwhile.

Catch my drift? To every promise there is a meanwhile. But this is my point: regardless of how bad my circumstances are, and no matter how scary things look or how weary of waiting I am—I don’t know the moment. I don’t know the hour or the day that God will show up and change everything. He will come. He said He’ll come, and He always does eventually come and change everything. If I don’t want Him to catch me flat-footed and without oil in my lamp, I’ve got to be watching and praying. I’ve got to be watching for Him to show up, and praying for Him to show up.

The Lord gave me a promise a few months back regarding a particular person that I’ve known for years. It was really a fabulous promise. Over the top and amazing and WOW. Meanwhile, that person has been the opposite in every way of what was promised. Opportunities for complaining and gossiping have abounded and have been (I’m sad to admit it) thoroughly taken advantage of.

But I don’t know the moment, the hour, or the day when God will come and do what He has promised He will do in this person’s life. Meanwhile, I am not supposed to be whining, I’m supposed to be watching for Jesus to show up. My instructions are to pray that He will.

So maybe I’ll still be waiting in a year, and maybe everything will change ten seconds from now. God never tells when, because He wants us to be watching and praying & every moment of every day, so when He comes, we can run to meet Him.

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